• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

NURSES CALL FOR URGENT ACTION FROM GOV BAKER

Written by SHIRA LAUCHAROEN Posted January 24, 2022 Filed Under: News, News to Us, NEWS+OPINIONS

Ask for 14 critical COVID safety recommendations


The Massachusetts Nurses Association sent a letter to Governor Charlie Baker on Jan. 20, asking him to take action to “safeguard front line caregivers, patients, and communities during the current COVID-19 surge” by putting into effect a State of Emergency until the end of March. The MNA would like to see issues such as hospital visitor policies, masking, quarantine procedures, and more addressed.

Katie Murphy, president of the MNA, gave the following statement in the letter:

“Two years into this pandemic, we are now at a place we all feared. Healthcare workers are overwhelmed and burned out,” Murphy wrote. “Healthcare facilities are overrun with both COVID-19 patients and those individuals who delayed care throughout the pandemic, and the system is buckling under the pressure. We are closer than we have ever been to the collapse of the healthcare system.

“It must be recognized that this current staffing crisis has been years in the making, as hospital administrators have implemented policies that drove tens of thousands of qualified staff away from hospital nursing as a result of strategic efforts to understaff hospitals to generate greater operating margins,” Murphy continued. “The pandemic has only exacerbated this situation and demonstrated the systemic lack of understanding and appreciation of the role and value of those providing direct patient care.”

A list of the recommendations outlined in the letter is included below:

  1. Reinstate temporary expedited licensure for out-of-state nurses.
  2. Reinstate liability protection for healthcare workers working outside their area of practice.
  3. Impose stricter visitor policies at hospitals across the state- including restrictions and PPE enforcement.
  4. Require that all staff interacting with patients be provided with new N95 masks upon request.
  5. Provide onsite testing for symptomatic and asymptomatic employees. Healthcare staff should not have to seek testing offsite. Hospitals have access to tests and the capacity to test.
  6. Provide onsite booster shots for healthcare staff.
  7. Return to previous quarantine procedures for COVID positive healthcare workers.
  8. Provide additional support for school nurses.
  9. Repeal the regulations regarding travel nurses which have further destabilized the nursing workforce.
  10. Support a local manufacturing base for domestic production of PPE.
  11. Include the voices of those on the frontlines.
  12. Re-establish procedures (tents outside EDs) to reduce COVID exposure.
  13.  Increase the use of the National Guard.
  14. Utilize all healthcare staff for the delivery of direct patient care (including managers and administrators).

SHIRA LAUCHAROEN

Shira Laucharoen is a reporter based in Boston. She currently serves as the assistant director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. In the past she has written for Sampan newspaper, The Somerville Times, Scout Magazine, Boston Magazine, and WBUR.

Related posts
  • SHIRA LAUCHAROEN
    https://digboston.com/author/shira-laucharoen/
    AG MAURA HEALEY SPEAKS OUT ON ABORTION BANS
  • SHIRA LAUCHAROEN
    https://digboston.com/author/shira-laucharoen/
    ABILITIES DANCE PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE OF "INTERSECTIONS"
  • SHIRA LAUCHAROEN
    https://digboston.com/author/shira-laucharoen/
    ROYALL HOUSE AND SLAVE QUARTERS HOSTS "ABOLITIONISTS IN ACTION"
  • SHIRA LAUCHAROEN
    https://digboston.com/author/shira-laucharoen/
    "STAND WITH UKRAINE THROUGH FILM" AT COOLIDGE CORNER

Filed Under: News, News to Us, NEWS+OPINIONS Tagged With: Charlie Baker, COVID, Health, nurse

WHAT’S NEW

We Turned the North End Restaurant Lawsuit Against Mayor Wu Into a Musical

We Turned the North End Restaurant Lawsuit Against Mayor Wu Into a Musical

Photo by Mike Connolly

Opinion: Defending the Right to Abortion

Longtime Anti-Nuclear Activist On Trial This Morning In Plymouth

Longtime Anti-Nuclear Activist On Trial This Morning In Plymouth

The ACLU's Critical "Do You Know Who Your Sheriff Is?" Campaign

The ACLU’s Critical “Do You Know Who Your Sheriff Is?” Campaign

Sacred Spaces: Special Mosque Edition

Sacred Spaces: Special Mosque Edition

“Stop Abortion Bans Now” by Fibonacci Blue. CC-BY 2.0. Original photo cropped for the Somerville Wire by Jason Pramas.

OPINION: R.I.P. ROE?

Primary Sidebar

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • We Turned the North End Restaurant Lawsuit Against Mayor Wu Into a Musical
  • Do You Want To Work For the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission?
  • DigBoston box among the boxes of defunct newspapers in Union Square, Somerville, Mass. Photo by Jason Pramas. Copyright 2022 Jason Pramas. EDITORIAL: DIGBOSTON SUSPENDING PRINT EDITION, GOING DIGITAL-ONLY (AGAIN)
  • Inbox: Red Bull Cliff Diving Returns To Boston Waterfront
  • How Long Can Major Cannabis Cultivators Sustain Massive Indoor Grows In Mass?

CURRENT STREET EDITION

DIG 24.08 – 04/21/22

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]